This invention relates to an apparatus for dispensing and re-rolling floor covering materials and particularly but not exclusively carpeting.
Carpeting is delivered and stored in large rolls which are convenient to mount in racks or even to lie simply in stacks. Generally in the carpet retailing industry, a rolled supply of a particular carpet to be sold is laid on the floor and unrolled across the floor so as to expose the length of carpet which is to be supplied, following which the carpet is cut at the required length. The remainder of the roll is then removed and replaced in the rack or on the stack and the cut carpet is simply rolled up across the floor following which is may be packaged or tied for delivery purposes.
This technique has disadvantages for a number of reasons. Firstly a relatively large amount of floor area must be set aside for unrolling the carpet since the floor area must exceed the typical lengths of carpet which will be supplied in a retail situation. Secondly the carpet when unrolled on the floor is exposed to dirt and deterioration. Thirdly the handling of the supply roll and the re-rolling of the cut carpet is generally a two person operation and is lengthy, time consuming and thus inefficient in personnel cost. Fourthly, the taking of inventory of a length of carpet rolls remaining in stock must be handles in basically the same way in that the carpet must be unrolled manually and then re-rolled with a measuring taking placing by laying the carpet across the floor and the use of a tape measure.
Various attempts have therefore been made to design and manufacture an automated device which will assist in the dispensing, measuring and re-rolling of carpet materials which overcomes the above disadvantages of the strictly manual process which is currently in use in almost all carpet retailing stores.
A search has revealed the following U.S. patents showing devices of this general type: U.S. Pat. No. 3,386,678 (Malone), U.S. Pat. No. 2,595,593 (Manning), U.S. Pat. No. 3,045,939 (Van der Waal), U.S. Pat. No. 2,834,558 (Halpin), U.S. Pat. No. 4,002,308 (Feighery), U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,463 (Alinder), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,273,300 (Wojtowicz).
Wojtowicz shows an arrangement including first and second cradles, each defined by a pair of rollers and belts wrapped around those rollers so that carpet can be unrolled from one cradle onto the other cradle and wrapped into a new roll around a cylindrical core. The machine is however extremely complicated, massive and expensive and accordingly has not been commercially successful.
Feighery shows again a very complicated arrangement including two separate frame work structures and concentrates particularly on the rewind mechanism which includes hydraulic actuation. Again therefore the device is much too complicated and expensive for operation at reasonable capital cost in a retail situation.
Alinder shows an arrangement which again is highly complex involving movement of a carriage longitudinally of the frame so as to be able to cut the material lengthwise as well as crosswise. The material is then wound onto a cylindrical core which is unsuitable for retail dispensing unless the core is removed by yet further handling of the heavy carpet rolls.
Halpin discloses an arrangement comprising two separate frame structures, one for supporting the supply roll and the other including a re-roll arrangement. Again, the device uses a central core for rolling the fresh roll of carpet and is unsatisfactory in design and construction making it difficult for use by a single operative.